February 6, 2012

Induction Stove In-Depth Review

Our good friend and blogger Jason Butler has recently taken up the task of writing 39 essays in 1 year, and one of them is his take on The Joy of an Induction Stove. He's an avid fan of an induction cooktop, and we think his thoughts from someone who uses one 2-3 times a day are hard to find and amazing to get.

Some highlights:

It’s incredibly fast. It boils water in less than half the time of our old electric stove, and faster than our gas one. You grow to love this.
Our cooktop is a smooth surface that wipes clean easily. I used to have chase crumbs and spills down the burners, and scrape the grates and the electric coils. This stovetop is so much easier.
The rest of the stovetop doesn’t get hot when things are cooking, and the stove itself cools down very quickly. (It still stays warm for a couple of minutes after you take the pot off, so you still have a pay a little attention.)
In order to use an induction cooktop, you need pots and pans that are magnetic. In general, this means that you should stick with stainless steel and cast iron cookery. Aluminum, copper and glass pots won’t work.

February 3, 2012

Urbano Eco Trash Can Uses Plastic Grocery Bags

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The Urbano Eco Trash Can is the winner of the 2005 Pratt Product Design Competition, and it deserves it. This recycling focused trash can allows you to store and reuse the plastic bags that you collect from shopping. Simply loop trash bags around the cut-out sides and push them all the way down. This creates a visual of stacked handles all along the side, and shows you how many bags you have left to use. When you are ready to use one, just move it up to the handles and hook so that it won't fall in on itself. Made in the USA.

We've since switched to getting either paper or using our own bags when we remember as we're not perfect. However we still get a bag or two that's plastic here or there, and right now store them in our simplehuman bag holder. This would just make more sense for the kitchen and the bathrooms instead of storing them for some possible use in the future.

February 2, 2012

Weigh Your Food at the Office with this Kitchen Scale to Go

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Sometimes you need a kitchen contraption to go, and the American Weigh Signature Series Black Digital Pocket Scale allows you to do just that. If your'e like me you want to know portions when at the office or on the go, and having a pocket scale might sound nuts but it's not. When starting any diet off you need to re-learn portion size and having a durable and compact digital pocket scale for easy portability makes the task easy.

This pocket scale weighs items up to 1000 grams in 0.1 gram increments, and has an easy-to-read, backlit LCD display. The stainless-steel weighing surface is smooth and easy to clean, and the entire scale is powered by 2 AAA batteries, and a set of which comes included. So get your weight loss or portion control New Year's resolution off to a better start with this pocket scale.

February 1, 2012

Kitchen Contraptions Monthly Round Up for January 2012

January 2012 was another amazing month of Kitchen Contraptions - filled with kitchen gadgets, small appliances, and other kitchen wonders.

Thanks again to all of our loyal readers for visiting us each day, and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Baking

Bring Cosplay to the Kitchen with the Batman Kitchen Apron and Cowl

Bowls

Trudeau Melamine Colorful Mixing Bowls

Coffee Makers

Cutting Boards

Totally Bamboo Football Cutting Board

Food Processors

General News

Grilling

SlatGrill Backwoods BBQ

Kitchen Gadgets

Garlic Zoom XL Drive Around Garlic Chopper

Kitchen Garden

Urban Cultivator Grows Greens In Your Kitchen

Large Appliances

Cook Anywhere On This Giant Induction Range

Outdoor Kitchens

SlatGrill Backwoods BBQ

Pots & Pans

Serving Wares

Small Appliances

January 31, 2012

Urban Cultivator Grows Greens In Your Kitchen

The Urban Cultivator is an enclosed hydroponic system designed for growing herbs and smaller vegetables indoors. A computer unit controls water, light cycles, humidity, and air circulation. All you need to do each week is add some fertilizer, and you need to eat the greens when they're ready to harvest of course.

Continue reading: "Urban Cultivator Grows Greens In Your Kitchen"

January 30, 2012

Annoying Orange Kitchen Carnage for iOS

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With the iPhone app Annoying Orange: Kitchen Carnage you can slice, blend, and dice your way through lots of fruit and be happy with the results. If you're unfamiliar with Annoying Orange, head on over to their web site and then you'll know why you need this app to continue on in your mobile existence.

January 27, 2012

Breville 700-Watt Compact Juice Fountain

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The Breville BJE200XL 700-Watt Compact Juice Fountain makes juicing just about anything quick and easy. The heavy-duty compact juice fountain with centered knife blade assembly features a 700-watt motor that operates at 14,000 RPM for maximum extraction of all things juice. The extra-large 3-inch centered feed tube will fit entire limes, lemons, and even oranges. There's even a stainless-steel micro-mesh filter for keeping out the bad things you don't want in your juice.

January 26, 2012

SlatGrill Backwoods BBQ

The SlatGrill can be rearranged to fit any backwoods cooking regime, and is one of the first rearrangeable grills we've ever seen. It costs just $110 and is also portable. Four pieces make up the base of the grill, and the slats fit in the top. All of the pieces will fit in a green bag packed flat for trekking out to your favorite camping spot.

Via Gizmodo

Read More in: Grilling | Outdoor Kitchens

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January 25, 2012

Make Your Own Soymilk with the Joyoung Easy-Clean Automatic Hot Soy Milk Maker

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Look how happy this girl is in the picture, and you'll realize how happy you could be if you had the Joyoung Easy-Clean Automatic Hot Soy Milk Maker. This soy milk maker has six intelligent protection functions for safe operation, and comes with an easy to clean stainless steel jug, filter, blade, and heating element.

The Joyoung Easy-Clean Automatic Hot Soy Milk Maker makes up to 1.6 Liter of fresh milk from soy beans, rice, mung beans, and almonds. We have a young son with soy allergies, but it's nice to see you can make rice milk with this maker. This set also include their exclusive best taste NON-GMO (not genetically modified) Soybean samples of 0.3LB gift bag, and a special discount voucher to order from their soybean farm store.

January 24, 2012

Garlic Zoom XL Drive Around Garlic Chopper

Did the Nasa Mars program just land a robotic garlic press on our countertops? We guess not but a Garlic Zoom XL did just land, and we're driving it around to garlic chopping success. How does it work? Just insert one or two peeled cloves in the trapdoor on top, close it up, and then drive your Zoom around the countertop. The stainless steel blades whizz around inside, slice and dicing the garlic.

Clear acrylic body with stainless-steel chopping blades
Fun for kids (the driving part! Don't let kids near the blades inside.)
See-through design lets you see when garlic is chopped enough
No more smelly garlic hands
Blade unit removes for cleaning; top-rack dishwasher-safe

January 23, 2012

Red Rice Cooker with Steaming Tray

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The Oster 4722 Rice Cooker with Steaming Tray in red cooks a variety of food including rice, soup, fondu and even steams vegetables. You can prepare up to 10 cups of rice, and it also features a 1-liter steaming tray. There's an automatic keep warm feature, and it's very simple to use with a one touch button. We really like the red color, and the brushed look of the exterior is also a nice change over shiny plastic or just plain metal. We are eating more and more steamed vegetables this year, and we think you'll welcome the change. Don't over steam them, but steam enough to make broccoli and asparagus crispy fresh.

January 20, 2012

Bring Cosplay to the Kitchen with the Batman Kitchen Apron and Cowl

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This cotton/polyester blend, is Color-fast, adjustable, stain resistant, and ready for cosplay in your kitchen. When you put on the apron and mask you can ask your cooking, "What you gonna do beef rib roast?". We think this is a perfect gift for crime fighters who cook, and who doesn't get better cooking results when dressed as Batman. Answer - nobody.

At Batman Classic Character Kitchen Apron

January 19, 2012

BISTRO Pour Over Coffee Machine

This is really an entirely new Bistro coffee maker from Bodum. Unlike the french press bistro, the water gets distributed evenly over the ground coffee through an easy to clean shower head made of plastic and silicone at an ideal temperature of well over 90ºC. The filter – titanium-plated stainless steel and finely meshed – keeps the coffee pure in taste and best of all no paper filter needed. No heating is needed because the piping hot coffee goes right into the stainless steel carafe.

The thermos comes with a spout that keeps the heat where it belongs
Easy press of a finger it opens only for pouring.
Only turns on with the jug in place
Handles of the jug and the filter are made from heatresistant silicone.

At BISTRO

January 18, 2012

Ceiling Pot Rack Cleans Up Kitchen Clutter

Pot racks are pretty amazing when you have an island to hang them over, and this pot rack made of Solid North American sugar maple with a grey finish delivers on a classic look. The nickel brackets and accessories have the ganging hardware included, and you can clean up the rack with a damp cloth. Additional pot hooks and extension hooks are available, and best of all it's made in USA.

January 17, 2012

CBTL Contata Single Cup Coffee and Espresso Brewer

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The only single-up machine that makes great coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and espresso, the compact footprint - fits easily anywhere. The CBTL Contata is made in Italy - the birthplace of espresso, and you can match it with their exclusive milk foamer for wonderful latte's and capiccinos. We've been enjoying this machine over the Summer and can safely say the french roast coffee is amazing.

At CBTL Contata Single Cup Coffee and Espresso Brewer